Poison
by Atana
Summary: Severus Snape's best friend Britomartis Vox tries to help an alcoholic roommate cope with the darkness within. A Snips and Spirals story.
1. Default Chapter

--------------------

"Poison"  
  
A Snips and Spirals Fanfic  
  
Text by Lady Tesser

-------------------  
  
DISCLAIMER: I'm not using a stereotype. I knew an Irishwoman like Kells - minus being a witch, she was exactly like this. I do hope she found her own way out of the darkness. Dedicated to Kathy, wherever she may be.

--------------------  
  
"How's Kells?" Britomartis Vox asked as she came back into the dorm she shared with her four roommates.  
  
Peony Danderfluff shook her head. "I think she's passed out again."  
  
"Third time this week," Oriana Crescent said quietly.  
  
Akiko Mori rolled her dark eyes. "We know what O'Shanahan does in her spare time."  
  
"Yeah, but three times a week is not good," Martis pointed out as she sat on the Irish girl's bed, smoothing red hair from the girl's forehead. "It's really interfering with school and exams are coming up in a month."  
  
"We can't wake her up," Oriana returned. "She's going to miss History of Magic class and you know what Binns will do."  
  
Akiko crawled on the bed and pulled Bridget O'Shanahan's limp body up. "God, she weighs a ton!"  
  
Martis helped her. "Well, she's a Celtic warrior and you're a little Japanese gal, what do you expect?" She patted Bridget's cheeks. "Come on, Kells, wake up. We're supposed to be in the Great Hall by now."  
  
The redhead did not respond, only swayed with the other girls' movements of her.  
  
"Oh, crud," Peony sighed, wringing her hands. "This is not good; this is not good at all."  
  
Oriana spun on her, shoving the small blonde girl against a bedpost. "You tell Price, and I'll cut off your hair and sell it to a wig-maker!"  
  
"Shut up, Crescent!" Martis snapped. "It's no secret that Kells drinks! Nurse Pomfrey's been putting her through detox every time she goes into the hospital! Something like this is going to get her expelled for sure!" She picked Bridget up, looping the unconscious girl's arm around her neck and headed for the door. "I'm taking her into the showers to wake her up - Akiko, get her uniform out."  
  
Oriana stood up. "Who died and made you leader of the pack?"  
  
Martis placed Bridget in a chair and glared at the girl. "Listen, Crescent, I don't see you doing anything constructive. Now, either help me wake her up or stay out of the way."  
  
"This is unacceptable behavior - "  
  
"Shut it, Prefect-wannabe!" Martis tossed Medusa at Oriana; the snake obliged by hissing menacingly as she darted her predominate fangs around in front of the girl's terrified face.  
  
Martis briefly wondered how Medusa got fangs, since constrictor snakes don't need them. Putting it out of her mind, she picked up Bridget again and took her to the showers.  
  
------------------  
  
Severus Snape looked toward the entrance of the Great Hall again, craning his neck to see who was coming through. Any girl with long blonde hair was checked to see if she wore sunglasses, which none of them did. He knew he should not have pushed her so hard in studying for the finals, but he wanted to make sure she was going to return to Hogwarts' next year and not have any obstacles for Quidditch tryouts.  
  
He absently stirred his oatmeal as he leaned on his fist.  
  
A blonde person sat before him. "Where is your little friend, Snips?" Lucius Malfoy asked. "Did you break up after the suspension of the Marauders because there was nothing else to do together?"  
  
Sev glared at him. "We were cramming last night - she's recovering now."  
  
Lucius' eyes bugged, making him drop his fork, which was halfway to his mouth. Over-easy egg smeared over the front of his robe.  
  
Several people within earshot began chattering up the Rumor Mill which spun out of control and began shooting off in all directions, embedding into the oak paneling of the Great Hall and threatening to crack the windows.  
  
Sev, too worried about Martis being gone from breakfast, did not notice what was going on around him.  
  
"They did what with each other?"  
  
"She's preggers with his spawn!"  
  
"They were caught practicing with a copy of the Wizard's Kama Sutra!"  
  
"She dumped him and ran off with her snake!" "She caught him in the arms of Sirius Black and she's crying in the bathroom!"  
  
"He sold her to Lucius Malfoy for three magic beans!"  
  
"He killed her and buried her in the garden!"  
  
Professor Penderdandis, knowing exactly what was being said, quietly intimated, "Silence."  
  
Most of the Great Hall fell silent. He stared at the assemblage of students looking expectantly at him and young Mister Snape who was distracted with his own worries. "It's not nice to start rumors."  
  
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, and then gave a nod of approval. The rest of the Hall went back to normal while Lucius quietly cussed out Sev who still had no idea what was going on around him, especially concerning the revelation that he had been in the middle of a torrid affair involving his best friend, half the Marauders, the snake, and three magic beans.  
  
--------------  
  
Bridget swore in Celtic as Martis dragged her back up to their dorm room, dressed her, and frog-marched her with Akiko down to the Great Hall near the end of breakfast.  
  
"Oh, Great Bellows of Brigid," she moaned, holding her hand to her head. "As soon as I can see without the light stabbing my eyes, I'm going to kill you, Spirals."  
  
"Take a number, Kells," she retorted, slipping the bigger girl on a bench. "Hey, Snips, sorry to keep you waiting."  
  
Sev leaned across the table and touched her hair. "You're wet!"  
  
"Had to give Kells a shower." She looked around and pushed a plate of toast toward the Irish girl. Looking around, she poked her head under the table and knocked her knuckles against the floor. "Hey, if any of you can hear me down there, can you send some coffee up to Slytherin?"  
  
It was worth a shot, just to find out if it could be done. Which it did not. Martis sighed and poured orange juice for Bridget. "What happened this morning, Snips? People have been giving me looks of pity."  
  
"I have no idea," he answered. He glanced at Bridget. "Hangover?"  
  
"Affirmative," Akiko added as she attacked her chopped boiled egg and kippers. "Poteen Queen can't lay off the stuff."  
  
Sev sat quietly, then murmured, "I wonder if I can ... make a potion that could get rid of hangovers."  
  
Bridget looked up at him, also wearing a pair of sunglasses. "Snape, you're my bestest buddy in the whole world - what kind of payment would you like?"  
  
"No!" Martis snapped. "I refuse to allow you to do that, Snips!"  
  
Bridget flicked a wet braid over her shoulder. "I need something like that, Spirals. Imagine how much better I would do!"  
  
"How much more you can poison yourself," Martis spat. "Kells, you're a bloody alcoholic."  
  
"Nonsense. Wizards cannot be alcoholics."  
  
Sev lowered his head and muttered into his tea, "Then explain Divinations' Madame von Gruppen."  
  
Bridget tried to look offended, but only managed to seem like she had smelled something. "In any case, I do not have a problem."  
  
Martis brought a bowl up and poured glop after glop of porridge into it right under Bridget's nose. Bridget managed to control the nausea, but when Martis started to slurp her own orange juice, her control cracked. Had she not already worshiped the porcelain goddess that morning, she would have made a mess. As it was, the dry heaves were bad enough for the Prefects to carry her off to the infirmary.  
  
"Nope," Martis said casually. "No problem at all."  
  
----------------  
  
Miss Rowena Price, Slytherin House Mother, had been aware of what has been going on. She had tried intervention, talking to the girl, contacting her parents (who seemed to think her consumption of poteen had been normal), and even had Professor Penderdandis the House Master talk to Miss O'Shanahan.  
  
To no avail.  
  
She was at the end of her rope. In her own time of being Slytherin House Mother, she never had a problem with students becoming addicted to alcohol. Alcohol was not permitted on the grounds - Quidditch victory parties notwithstanding.  
  
But Bridget O'Shanahan's poteen supply seemed to be never-ending and neither were her visits to Nurse Pomfrey. Once a month could be overlooked, but the last month had been two times a week.  
  
And now she understood, this was the third time this week. And it was only Wednesday.  
  
She had to speak to the Headmaster. And possibly expel the girl.  
  
----------------  
  
Martis carried her books up to her room, tossing them on her footlocker then plopping into bed. Medusa slithered from around her neck and across the pillow.  
  
She stared up at the canopy of her bed, the green curtains surrounding her, enclosing her, filling up her senses with their winter mustiness and...  
  
She sat up and opened every window in the room, allowing the warm breezes to flow through the room and air out the smells of a dorm room.  
  
Martis stripped out of her uniform and threw on a gold spiral-printed turquoise sundress and a pair of Cretan sandals. Great Mother, it felt good to wear those again!  
  
Throwing on a few beaded necklaces with Snake Goddess fetishes and adjusting her sunglasses, she picked up Medusa and draped her around her neck, feeling refreshed. She headed back down to the common room and located Sev studying next to one of the windows looking into the darkness of the lake.  
  
"Come on, Snips," she said cheerfully. "The sun's out, it's a beautiful day, and it's warm! Time to enjoy the world!"  
  
Several people threw wadded up pieces of parchment at her for being too chipper.  
  
"I don't like the world," Sev muttered with disdain. "Make it go away."  
  
She raspberried him and picked him up by the arm. "Come on, Snips! We need some fresh air and you need a break from studying. I'll toss you into the lake and the merpeople will toss you back to me."  
  
"No, thank-you."  
  
Martis released him and he sat back down, his nose still buried in the book. Looking around and seeing everyone else also deep in study, she sighed and crawled into his lap to get his attention.  
  
This seemed to be the right move as his book hit the floor, his eyes opened REAL wide, and he tensely froze as he stared up at her. As a matter of fact, everyone else was staring intensely as well.  
  
"Now," she said. "You are going outside with me, or I am going to sit on you and make the protection spells go off."  
  
"FOR GODS' SAKES, GO OUTSIDE!" everyone yelled, not wanting to be subject to the dorms' 'protection spells' designed to keep amorous students apart. (Most resulted in a shower of freezing cold water coming from the ceiling. If not explosives. which always got everyone else in the blast radius.)  
  
Sev, blushing as only a fourteen-year-old boy could blush, allowed Martis to drag him out of the common room and up to the main floor, out into the Quad, and out into the countryside surrounding Hogwarts.  
  
She released him and inhaled deeply. "Spring! Warmth! The sun! Everything's alive again!"  
  
"Lovely," Sev replied in deadpan sarcasm. "Thousands of crawling, living things to bite me and make me swell up. Now, may I go back and repair what's left of my dignity and study for finals?"  
  
"No." She pulled him along and practically danced across the field of flowers between the school and the edges of the Forbidden Forest. She began singing some light-toned song in Minoan, her voice flowing through the notes like honey.  
  
Sev did have to admit, Martis was the better singer of the two. From what he understood of her island's magics, a lot of it was an ancient type, most of them going as far back as to the first recognized vocal patterns of language. Many of the archaic spells from her home were simply long, drawn out song notes.  
  
A figure in a long brown cloak sprinted within the woods, causing both students to halt mid-step.  
  
Sev felt his heart beat harder while Martis squeezed his arm. "Wonder who that is?" she asked.  
  
"Let's not find out," he suggested, trying to spin back around.  
  
"Snips, where's your sense of adventure?"  
  
"I left it in my other robe. Let's go and not bother it." She yanked his arm and dragged him along. "Spirals - what are you doing? You're going to get us killed or worse! Dumbledore said we aren't supposed to go in there!"  
  
"I'm not listening - la-de-da!"  
  
Sev felt his knees give and wondered if she always got like this when cooped up inside for six months at a time.


	2. The Forest

Chapter 2 – The Forest  
  
Martis skirted the woods carefully, feeling her senses heighten and heart nearly pounding out of her chest. It was like this when she first saw a Manticore, its humanlike face almost alien as she and it gazed eye-to-eye for almost an hour.  
  
This was less dangerous. After all, Medusa was more relaxed, and the energies she tasted on the wind told her that the woods were well guarded by Centaurs. The Centaurs, if they were anything like the ones she knew, would make sure any humans stayed out of places they did not belong.  
  
However, the being in the brown cloak might not even be human.  
  
Her hand slipped down to Sev's hand, both now moving carefully through the beech trees. The trees' thickness indicated this part was the younger area of the forest, while the dusky forms of wider trees before them shielded the older, darker parts.  
  
She shivered, wishing that she had brought a cloak with her. The sun was going to start setting over the tops of the trees soon. The fickle spring air responded more quickly, or perhaps the struggling buds of the trees provided enough shade from sunlight to drop the temperature around them. Or maybe it was this frozen land telling her to go back to Crete and enjoy more rational weather.  
  
She certainly was not going to tell Sev she was cold. He would be able to convince her to go back to the castle and then the adventure would be ruined.  
  
Was Medusa relaxed because she was sleeping again?  
  
Both reached the edge of the older oak trees, their gnarled forms twisting in the darkness behind them. Martis pressed her finger to her lips and both carefully made their way around the base of the tree, looking in all directions; Martis looking for the brown-cloaked figure and Sev looking for anything that might eat them.  
  
Sev touched her shoulder, making her gasp and choke at the same time. He leaned close against her back, his lips near her ear. "Only me, Spirals!"  
  
"Don't scare me like that!" she whispered back.  
  
"You feel cold."  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"You have goose-pimples all over your back." He pulled away and slipped his robe off, draping it over her.  
  
She looked back to see him in his uniform she had bought him for Christmas. Already she could see the space between the hem of his trousers and the tops of his shoes. She mouthed a 'thank-you." and pulled his robe closer around his shoulders. It smelled like him - mostly potions, a little soap, a lot of his own teenage boy smells. 'Boys smell weird,' she decided.  
  
Martis tiptoed to the next tree. Sev echoed her movement. She repeated. He followed.  
  
Sev cared little for adventure. Adventure was something in which some poor idiot in a far off place was doing with incredible amounts of bad luck plaguing him on the way. Severus Snape did not stand for adventure.  
  
'So why are you in the Forbidden Forest with a butt-kicking Amazon and looking for people in cloaks?' a voice asked him.  
  
His reply was a simple: 'Shut up.'  
  
Both heard the sound of a soft alto voice singing in a lilting Irish brogue:  
  
"Soldiers are we, whose lives are pledged to Ireland -  
Some have come from a land beyond the wave -  
Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland -  
Shall shelter the despot, or the slave -  
Tonight we man the bearna baoghal -  
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal -  
'Mid cannon's roar and rifle's peal -  
We'll chant a soldier's song!"  
  
The song seemed to come from all around as they continued on, listening for a single direction. Finally, it seemed to be concentrated in front of them on the other side of a large oak wider than Sev's reach.  
  
Martis pointed for him to go around the left while she would surprise the right. Sev shook his head - 'NO WAY' - and she made an obscene hand gesture at him in return. He answered back with another type of obscene hand gesture that surprised her, considered she had never taught this one to him. She sighed and braced her back against the tree, pulling Medusa off her shoulders and holding the snake in her arms. Inching her way around the tree, she stood at a 90-degree angle between Sev and the noise, now quite certain it was right next to her.  
  
"HOO-WHA!" she shrieked, twirling around and tossing Medusa at the figure. She spun back against the tree and was shocked to hear:  
  
"[CENSORED] [CENSORED], SPIRALS! GET YOUR [CENSORED] [CENSORED] SNAKE OFF ME!"  
  
Martis and Sev glanced at each other, and then ran around to the other side of the tree to see Bridget O'Shanahan trying to untangle herself from Medusa.  
  
"Kells?"  
  
Bridget slung Medusa back at Martis who caught the airborne snake. "No - Queen [CENSORED] Maeve!"  
  
Sev sniffed. "She's tanked again."  
  
Martis sniffed as well. "That's more than poteen. Kells, what have you had?"  
  
"Wazzit bloody matter teh yew?" Bridget slurred. She unsteadily raised her wand. "Gew away, Spirals. I'm seek n'tired of studdyin'. Lemme relax."  
  
"If you got any more relaxed, you'd be dead," Martis told her. "Come on, let's take you back to the school."  
  
"No!" Her wand swayed. "Stey away!"  
  
Sev pulled his wand out, pointing back at her in return. "Kells, put the wand down. You're in no condition to do any incantations."  
  
She opened her mouth.  
  
Sev quickly yelled, "SILENCIO!"  
  
Bridget was shocked to find her voice not working. She took a swig of clear liquid from a bottle and stood up, towering over both.  
  
Martis quickly dropped to her hands, sweeping her foot into Bridget's ankles and causing the girl to collapse -  
  
Right on top of Sev.  
  
"Spirals, help! ARGH!" Bridget already had a fistful of Sev's hair in her hand and was about to plow a Celtic-warrior-trained fist into his hooked nose -  
  
Martis' wand drew out, her voice calling, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"  
  
Bridget's body stiffened, falling on top of Sev again, this time not being as violent about it.  
  
Sev pushed the girl off. "Adventure, you say! Fun, you say! I've a mind to leave you in the middle of the forest with the - SPIDER!"  
  
Martis turned around, feeling the hairs all over her body stand on end as she found herself staring back at the eight eyes of an Acromantula right in front of her, hanging from a tree above. It was about three feet wide, minus its legs.  
  
"Snips," she breathed. "How far are we from the forest edge?"  
  
"About two hundred yards."  
  
"Let's grab Kells and run."  
  
Sev inhaled deeply, feeling his knees and arms turn to gelatin as he uneasily lifted up Bridget on one side.  
  
Martis stabbed her wand toward the face of the spider as she cried, "CONJUCTIVITIS!"  
  
The spider's legs waved around the air, screaming wildly; the legs closest to its eyes trying to clear away the hex. Martis picked up Bridget's other side and both students sprinted out of the forest.  
  
"Great Mother, I promise I will never ask for adventure again as long as I live - "  
  
"IF we live!" Sev shrieked. "Now SHUT UP AND RUN!"  
  
The cries of the spider died in the distance as the trees gave way to thinner and thinner trunks, until at last they burst out of the forest, dropping Bridget to the ground and falling, gasping for breath.  
  
Sev turned over, his hair in his face, pointing an accusing finger at Martis. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"  
  
Martis sat up and got in his face, her sunglasses hanging off one ear and Medusa slipping from her shoulders. "It's MY fault that we saved Kells from being devoured by an Acromantula?"  
  
"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT WAS AN ACROMANTULA?" he yelled right in her face.  
  
"Because I'm pretty sure we don't have nuclear testing around here!" she answered.  
  
"YOU - "  
  
Hagrid picked up both by the scruffs of their necks and pulled them apart. "Oy, oy! What's goin' on?? What about an Acromantula?? And what happened to Bridget??"  
  
Martis and Sev looked at each other, and then looked up at the hairy man. "Ever heard of poteen?" she asked as she handed Sev his robe back.  
  
The look Hagrid gave Sev as he put his robe back on made the Third-Year boy blush up to his hairline. 


	3. The Balcony

Chapter 3 – The Balcony  
  
Bridget was smuggled back into Slytherin House and put back to bed, both spells taken off her unconscious form.  
  
Sev continued with his studies while Martis sat up with Bridget, looking after the redhead.  
  
The door knocked and Miss Price entered, carrying a tray. "How's the dear?"  
  
"Still out of it," Martis answered. She brushed her long ash-blonde hair over her shoulder and leaned her head back against the wall. "I feel responsible."  
  
"Well, you aren't." Miss Price put the tray down on Martis' bed. "If anything, you saved her life by your initial silliness."  
  
Martis looked up at her House Mother. "What the point of being proud of that when the person wants to kill themself?" She pointed to the nearly- empty bottle near her feet. "Cows require four stomachs to be able to digest the raw stuff. And considering how alcohol is made, I'm surprised there's anything left of a human's digestive tract after drinking that crap. I don't know why Wizards think they're the exception to alcohol poisoning."  
  
"I understand it little, myself," Miss Price admitted. "The only hard thing I ever drank was the eggnog around Christmas." She gently stroked Martis' hair. "You're still not responsible for how she conducts her life."  
  
"Probably not. But it's the only decent thing to do."  
  
The House Mother nodded and turned to leave. "I've brought up some food for you. There's broth there for Miss O'Shanahan when she wakes up. Give her water if she wants anything to drink."  
  
"Yes, ma'am."  
  
The door closed, and Martis stared into the moonlit darkness for a while. An idea occurred to her.  
  
Well, perhaps not the best idea, but it would work for the time being. Keep the stuff out of the dorm room and let Kells recover for a few days without any of that stuff in her system.  
  
Martis got up and began rummaging through Bridget's Celtic knotwork-carved footlocker, dresser, bed stand, under her bed, under her pillows. Then finally the rest of the nooks and crannies of their dorm room.  
  
Martis found exactly forty-six bottles of alcohol, all of them unlabeled, and all of them smelling foul. Most of them were poteen while a select few were different types of whiskey.  
  
She gathered up the bottles in her cloak, thinking about the stories Bridget told about the poteen. Bridget once claimed that when her father brought the Christmas pudding to the table, he splashed it with a bit of poteen and lit it up like he would with traditional brandy and pudding - the flames touched the rafters of their thatched cottage.  
  
"And she drank this stuff?" Martis wondered aloud as she took the cloakful of bottles to the girls' room to flush down the toilets.  
  
----------------  
  
Twenty minutes later, Martis returned to the dorm room; it looked like a tornado tore through, beds and trunks and drawers all over the place.  
  
Bridget was gone from her bed. One of the windows - closed when she had put the Irish girl to bed - was open.  
  
"Great Mother!" Martis cried, flinging her cloak to the floor and crawling half out the window. She looked around wildly to the lake below, trying to see Bridget's white nightgown floating in the water, then looked up and around.  
  
Bridget was standing on the ledge leading around the windows of their room.  
  
Martis pulled her head in and dropped Medusa to the floor. Grabbing quill and parchment, she ripped off a piece of paper and wrote: 'Snips! Get Miss Price up here! Kells is on the ledge! HURRY!'  
  
She put the paper in the snake's mouth and whispered, "Take this to Snips, Medusa. Hurry!"  
  
The snake quickly slithered off.  
  
Martis twisted her hair back from her shoulders and leaned back out the window. "Kells! Kells - can you hear me?"  
  
The spring breezes were strong, making the clouds skitter quickly across the sky and over the moon's crescent face. The water of the lake was choppy below, blowing spray up into the air. It tasted like a storm brewing, even though the few clouds appeared milky-blue in the soft moonlit.  
  
Bridget stood on the ledge, illuminated by the silver moonlight. Her bare feet were as white as her nightgown, which was entangling her in the breeze. Her twin braids snapped around her tear-streaked freckled face, a face of fear and anger and mirroring horrors unseen as she gazed at the silver crescent in the sky.  
  
"Kells!"  
  
The girl continued to stare up at the moon, the wind blowing her supernaturally calm voice back to Martis. "I hear you, Spirals. So, you interrupted my quiet time with your little boyfriend and then tossed out all my poteen. Anything else you want to do? Since you don't have the Marauders to pick on anymore, you needed someone else, is that it? Disguising it as a moral crusade, too - what a self-righteous little bitch you are." She swallowed loudly enough for Martis to hear. "Ever think one of us isn't Pureblooded enough to join the Ladies of Slytherin? That one is us is shunned because of coming from a bumpkin Irish village full of idiots? That one of us is in love with Sirius Black and that her heart broke when he was sent way because YOU couldn't take the joke?" She finally looked back toward the window out of which Martis was leaning. "This is your fault, Britomartis Vox. Because of you and that stupid Snape, I lost the guy I loved beyond all reason, the guy whose smile kept me going in this bullying, snobby hellhole. And when YOU had to go and get gang-banged by the rest of his buddies, HE'S the one who paid for it! Not you - not Snape - HIM!"  
  
"Kells, he's a jerkwad - "  
  
"That's because you're a man-hating, snake-worshipping bitch. Some of us appreciate daring men who are men - "She gazed back up at the moon. "Doesn't matter now. He's gone. I'm lost. And you dumped my poteen. Happy? ARE YOU [CENSORED] HAPPY, VOX?!"  
  
"Kells, please! This is just withdrawal - "Martis wondered where the Avernus Miss Price was.  
  
"No. I've wanted to say this for a long time. Little Miss Slytherin Darling, Backbeat Spirals, Pureblood Cretin, one-half of Snips and Spirals - the bitchy half. You've got Snape on a leash and ready to do your bidding any time you want, what do you need to ruin the other men for? You keep fighting with Malfoy, you got rid of Sirius Black and James Potter, you emasculated our entire Quidditch team - what's YOUR problem? The Amazons died out - get over it."  
  
Martis climbed out onto the ledge, padding carefully toward the redhead. She reached her hand over to her, even though her knee-length hair was threatening to strangle her. "Kells, please come inside and we'll work this out - "  
  
Bridget shook her head, her cold Slytherin smile distorting her face in the harsh shadows as she stared at Martis. "No. You ruined what little happiness I had here. You need a kick in the ribs, too." She stepped out.  
  
"KELLS!" Martis made a leap, grabbing hold of a projection, her other hand reaching for Bridget O'Shanahan -  
  
Who slipped down toward the lake, her white nightgown enveloping her form.  
  
"NO!"  
  
The sound of a splash never came. Instead, the sound of a body slamming into other bodies carried up to her, and Martis crawled to the ledge to see what had happened.  
  
Four figures appeared - Professor Penderdandis, Miss Price, Sev, and Oriana Crescent - all on broomsticks. Bridget was across Penderdandis and Price's laps, out cold. Below the four, Peony Danderfluff and Akiko Mori were also on broomsticks.  
  
"Got your message," Sev said. He brushed hair back from his face. "Just in time, too."  
  
Penderdandis, whose expression of fear was probably due to the shadows of moonlight, looked up at her. "Thank-you, Miss Vox, but this is out of your hands." He turned back to the other girls. "And much as I understand your desire to protect your friend, something like this cannot be ignored any longer. Miss O'Shanahan will be taken to the Headmaster. Go back to the dorms, please."  
  
Martis crawled back into her room, slipped her cloak back on, and left the dorm room before her roommates could return.  
  
------------------  
  
"Martis is missing," Miss Price whispered as bed times rolled around. "Do you know where she is, Severus?"  
  
Sev looked up bleary-eyed from his studies. "I thought she stayed in her room."  
  
Miss Price shook her head. "She's not there. Not on the ledge either. From what we heard going on before Bridget tried to jump, it seemed Bridget was really slaughtering her."  
  
Sev closed his books. "I'll see if I can find her."  
  
---------------  
  
The school building closest to Slytherin dorms showed no sign of Filch or Mrs. Norris, so Sev slipped into the building and began climbing the several flights of stairs to the Conversation Room.  
  
He had no idea what Martis and Bridget were saying up on the ledge. He was upwind from their direction and the breezes did not carry their words to him. He was certainly worried ... 'slaughtered', Miss Price had said. What words could possibly hurt Martis?  
  
Sev poked his head through the crawl-hole, looking around the dark room. Above, the stained glass ceiling glittered with the moonlit, the moon itself hidden behind a translucent red rose.  
  
"Martis?" he said softly.  
  
"Go away," her voice answered in the darkness.  
  
"You were missing," he stated as he crawled into the room. His hand felt for her, patting against her. His hand moved up and he discovered it was her thigh. He quickly pulled his hand away. "Sorry about that."  
  
"Did anybody miss me? Or only you, since you're my do-boy?"  
  
Sev felt stunned. Did she just refer to him as nothing but her minion?  
  
"What happened?" he asked. "What did she say to you on the ledge?" He groped in the dark for her and his arms managed to draw around her waist. He could feel her knees were up to her chest; if she moved her legs at all, it would be very uncomfortable for him. "Martis, please, talk to me."  
  
"The stupid bint was in love with Sirius Black," she said. Her voice began to crack as she continued, "She blamed me for sending him away. She thinks I was out to get her. She thinks I'm out to destroy men. She wanted me to suffer just as much as she did - "  
  
Sev pulled her closer and squeezed her tightly, burying her face against his neck. He had no clue how to comfort her. She was always the one comforting him, not the other way around.  
  
Gods ... she was not as strong. She was still a child. She was just as scared and lost as he was. It was not the untouchable Spirals in his arms, it was little Britomartis, neglected by a busy mother and father and having to draw upon herself.  
  
And he had been leeching off her all this year. And she failed herself when someone managed to push her buttons about...  
  
"None of it was your fault, Martis," he found himself saying. "Black brought his suspension on himself - you defended yourself at every turn - you would never go after anybody unless provoked - "  
  
He felt tears dribble down his neck as she broke into sobs. "Severus, I couldn't stop her! She was going to kill herself over some stupid boy! She always had her mother and her father! How dare she say some stupid crush was more important than being loved by her own parents?! They weren't even like yours, either! How dare she - how dare - "  
  
He held her, wanting to squeeze the pain out of her. It was frustrating, not able to drive away pain she did not need to feel. She was more worthy of happiness. She did not need to be afraid or hurt or alone. He could deal with it, he preferred it, even. But Martis was too good ... too pure ... to be subjected to any of the darkness.  
  
Sev stroked her hair. Unsure of what to do, he just held her and murmured, "It's all right to cry. Cry all you want, Martis. I'll be here."  
  
Ten minutes of sobbing tapering into hiccups and sniffles, her arms wrapped tightly around his body and her face still against his neck.  
  
"Martis?" he said quietly. "Kells didn't want to be rescued. Nothing you could have done would have changed her mind. Not everyone can be saved because ... they don't want to be."  
  
"But why?" she choked, pulling away from his neck.  
  
"Why does my father beat me?" he asked in return. "Why did you parents neglect you? Why any of it?" He began wiping the tears from her face, feeling the wetness in the dark. "It's how it is. You can't meddle in everyone's darkness, my friend."  
  
"But no one deserves to be in darkness," she sniffed.  
  
"Some of us do."  
  
"You don't, Sev!" she cried, pressing hard against his body as she hugged him tightly. "No one does!"  
  
He pushed her away, keeping his hands on her shoulders, which were still bare save for the straps of her sundress. "Britomartis, please understand that darkness is part of all of us. That some want to stay in it, and others don't know how to get out." He had no idea who was saying this - this was nothing miserable Severus Snape would say - but everything made perfectly clear sense. "I'm glad you came into my life. I need you in my life. I want you to keep me out of darkness as much as you can, as much as we can get away with. I'm dreading going home for the summer, but I'm counting on you to be here when I get back."  
  
"Always, Snips," she whispered. "It'll be us against the world, then."  
  
"And you don't have to rescue everyone," he added.  
  
She sighed in the darkness. "That's going to take some getting used to."  
  
"I thought you had exhausted yourself working on me."  
  
"Of course not. Making friends is the easy part, and keeping you as a friend has been a breeze." She touched his cheek.  
  
He could feel her fingertips caressing his skin. He inhaled sharply, surprised at his heart beating faster and his stomach tensing in response. Why? This was only his best friend.  
  
"Are you feeling any better?" he asked.  
  
She took her hand away. "A bit. I must need some sleep." She hugged him again. "Let's get back to the dorms."  
  
They made their way down the staircases to the ground floor; looking around and making sure Filch and/or Mrs. Norris were not around. The coast clear, they wrapped their arms around the other's waist and walked back to Slytherin Tower, their heads close as they kept warm in the cool spring air.  
  
A figure watched them, unseen in the shadows despite his presence.  
  
-----------------  
  
"I saw 'em, Professor Dumbledore, sir," Rubeus Hagrid said softly. "This isn't the first time I saw 'em go up ter that tower, either."  
  
The Headmaster of Hogwarts blinked silently behind his half-moon glasses. "And what do you think happens up there, Hagrid, between best friends?"  
  
The hairy man blushed. "I daren't say, sir."  
  
"Be assured, Hagrid, that best friends need words and reassurances more than anything else. Things that others need not witness or burst in upon. I trust them to do what is right for them." Dumbledore chuckled. "Besides which, did you think that the protective spells didn't cover a romantic and secluded location like the tower? I may be senile and a trifle potty, but I'm not stupid."  
  
Hagrid shuffled in place. "Sorry ter bother yeh, then, Professor Dumbledore, sir. I'll be leavin' now."  
  
"Thank-you, Hagrid, for your concern." He smiled kindly. "Those two are my most fragile students, and they are also my strongest. Their maturity is a fascinating thing to observe."  
  
As the door closed, Dumbledore wrote a note: 'Memo to self - extend AHP system to the Tower.'  
  
---------------  
  
The next afternoon, Martis, Akiko, Peony, and Oriana were asked to meet in the entrance of the school.  
  
Hagrid, who held the big Irish girl in his arms like an infant, brought Bridget down the staircase. Her face was ravaged with tears and horrors from a night spent in hangovers and withdrawals. She looked so ill, even her freckles were pale.  
  
Headmaster Dumbledore appeared near them, his old face wrinkled with sadness and concern. "Are you sure you want to go back home, Bridget?"  
  
"Yes," she answered quietly. "I'm not a real witch. If I can't handle Hogwarts, I have no business being a witch."  
  
"Your roommates are here to wish you off."  
  
Bridget raised her head slightly, seeing her four roommates. "Go away."  
  
Peony and Akiko did, while Oriana sighed and made a production of stomping off. Only Martis remained, and she folded her arms. "Giving up, O'Shanahan?"  
  
"What's it matter to you, Vox? I'm going away, too, just like Sirius Black. Be queen of the school, I don't care. I'm going back home."  
  
Martis nodded. "Sev told me that some people don't want to be pulled out of their darkness. I only wish that you can pull yourself out of your darkness on your own before it's too late."  
  
"Good-bye," Bridget sniffed. "Please, Hagrid, I want to go."  
  
Hagrid carried the girl out to the courtyard where a carriage waited for her. Dumbledore placed his hand on Martis' shoulder. "Great potential there."  
  
"I know," Martis replied as she reached back to touch his hand. "But she doesn't want to see it."  
  
"Those buried in darkness and hells of their own designs cannot see out of them," the Headmaster said sagely. "They throw a veil between themselves and the world, and deny it is there at all."  
  
"So how are some able to come out?"  
  
He looked down at her. "You mean your friend? He wanted someone to peek under the veils and tell him it was all right, even though he does not want to believe it. Severus is a sensitive soul, needing someone more resilient than himself to make him see his own worth."  
  
"I can't be strong all the time," Martis whispered as she turned around to face him.  
  
"Resilience is a form of strength," Dumbledore stated. "It's a natural strength that does not require constant upkeep or a mask to convey its presence. Your own darkness was never strong enough to keep you down. You've always bounced back if it caught you. Living proof that it can be done, and Severus needs that example."  
  
"That's a lot." She drew her arms around his waist.  
  
"But you've already started," he assured her as he hugged her shoulders. "And I know you won't give up now."  
  
She pulled away. "I really need to get to studying for finals."  
  
"Absolutely. I know Severus would want you back here next year."  
  
She nodded, hugging him again. "Thanks, Headmaster."  
  
Dumbledore watched Martis run back down the corridor, allowing the vision of the future to flicker before his eyes - the girl coming back as a grown woman, battered by life, but not falling into the darkness that offered itself to her, despite what had happened.  
  
He smiled, comforted by the thought, and wandered back to his office.  
  
-End- 


End file.
